


Headless

by Mistress_of_the_Underground



Category: ATEEZ (Band)
Genre: Author has zero idea about how the tagging actually works, Beheading, Character Death, Coming back to life, Eventual Romance, Falling In Love, Ghosts, Love, M/M, Minor Character Death, Romance, Seonghwa cares too much and has no self-preservation at all, The Headless Horseman - Freeform, The Legend of Sleepy Hollow - Freeform, Violence, ghost physics that make no sense - don't ask please, mingi is a ghost
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-12-21
Updated: 2020-01-31
Packaged: 2021-02-18 07:10:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,807
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21890278
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mistress_of_the_Underground/pseuds/Mistress_of_the_Underground
Summary: Mingi has always loved exaggerating, sometimes the price is way higher than he would like to pay.After all, the best cure to a lying tongue is a beheaded man.Seonghwa has never bothered with believing in the ghost stories. There are no ghosts in the neighbourhood, thank you very much.They both were wrong about some things, but maybe being wrong isn't always the worst thing that could happen.
Relationships: Park Seonghwa/Song Mingi
Comments: 6
Kudos: 23





	1. Prologue

Loud shouts and the thundering clatter of hooves hitting the ground echo throughout the woods, shadows dance between the trees and bushes. Their multiple shapes changing with every passing second. The full moon let's light fall onto the pathways when stormy clouds aren't hiding it behind their faceless horrors. The old trees are bending over with every strong gust of wind, their branches touching the ground and scratching hideous slashes through the sandy roads scattered all over the dark land. 

Mingi fears. For the first time in his life, he fears that he won't see the rising sun anymore. The angry soldiers, chasing him like hunters chase the injured rabbit, are getting too close. He knows that there is no chance that he will live to tell the tale. He spurs his horse on. He can see that the animal is growing tired. He can hear the men behind him. He can hear their mocking screams and shouts of victory they have yet to taste, but that they will soon be able to hold between their hands.

A single arrow barely misses his ear. It's followed by disappointed groans as if he actually is the rabbit of their hunting trip as if he is not a human like they are. What has he done to deserve their anger? Another one is shot at him and it arrives at its destination in his right shoulder.

It burns, Mingi has never felt this kind of a pain in his whole life. His lucky stars have always protected him from the worst. Never before has his habit of exaggeration caused him any harm. Until now.

The sharp tip digs deeper and deeper into his flesh with every step the horse takes. Warm blood trickles down his back, his shirt clings to his skin where the liquid has stained it. He can feel as with every passing moment, more and more of his back is covered in it, as the pain grows stronger. The wind pierces through his skin and rips at his hair and clothes with its coldness that could compete against death itself.

His chasers' shouts of victory get louder and louder. They grow nearer. They will catch him. He has nowhere to run, nowhere to hide. His horse is getting slower, his breathing ragged and hard. Mingi's heart aches for the animal who never did anything but his best. Daredevil had been with him since childhood. At least they grew up together and will die together as well. Always with each other has always been their way of doing things.

Daredevil's hoove gets caught behind a root and he trips. His mouth is getting covered with foam as he still tries to gain back his balance, to run again. He falls, his legs give out underneath him and Mingi goes down with his horse. His leg gets crushed underneath Daredevil. He screams as his bones get crushed. He sobs out his pain as they break. It hurts, it hurts so much that he can barely keep his eyes open. He can barely keep the dark dots away from his vision.

He wants to cry. He got himself into this situation and because of that Daredevil had to suffer. The horse's breathing is growing slower and slower with every moment that Mingi fights with the darkness and watches as the faulty get closer to them

Their horses gather around him and his dying horse. They laugh at his pain. Their taunts barely reach him through his pain. His eyes flutter close and now that he has no reason to watch them anymore, he hopes for the sweet darkness to take him over, but it doesn't happen. A sharp kick to his ribs scares away the approaching peace. It is the first, but it doesn't end up being the last.

The soldier grows tired of his game quite soon though. His fingers play with the handle of his sword as he watches Mingi with an evil smirk.

"The best cure to a lying tongue is a beheaded man."

He screams as the sharp sword is lifted above him, its blade shining threateningly in the moonlight. This is it. His eyes close involuntarily as the sharp edge of the metal falls closer and closer to him. His breath catches in his throat as he waits for the blade to finish its cascading way towards him.

His scream of pain and horror is cut in half as easily as a hot knife slides through butter when the blade falls and slices through his neck. The head rolls away, its open eyes staring towards the dark sky. Blood pools from the wound and colours the ground around the two dead bodies with red.

The man who beheaded Mingi sheaths his sword and grabs the head by its hair from the ground. It dangles uselessly above the ground, its eyes now staring emptily towards its tormentors. 

“I’ll take this with me, Mr Liar,” he laughs as he wraps the head in a ripped piece of Mingi's cape and races off with his friends, laughing and talking loudly as if he didn't take the life away from another man.

The shadows wrap their cold hold around the dead bodies left on the road as moonlight caresses them for the last time. The night whispers its sadness into the embrace.

Heavy fog rises as a majestic black horse carries its headless rider the way his killers went. Its soul screaming for revenge.

He will carry their heads as his until he will find his stolen treasure.


	2. Chapter One

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello lovely readers!
> 
> I would really love if you shared your thoughts on this fic and gave feedback as it helps me improve my writing.

“...And no one ever saw these soldiers again." 

The bartender stands in front of Seonghwa with his arms raised like a ghost’s in children's cartoons. His face is scrunched up into an ugly smirk but he doesn’t actually look threatening in any way, not for Seonghwa at least. If anything he looks like a giddy little child dressed up as a ghost on Halloween evening begging for candy that his parents don’t let him eat on normal evenings. He looks excited to tell the story but not afraid like he claims to be. None of the people in the inn seem to be as scared of that headless ghost as they claim to be. None of them is pale, no nervous looks and absolutely no shivering even though they say that the sight of the ghost makes them freeze in its path as it kills one unsuspecting villager after another, searching for its head. Nothing has happened to them or they would actually look afraid not like they just pulled the best prank ever on the cowardly newcomer.

Seonghwa can’t help but scoff. That is on its own a pretty cute ghost story to tell children before putting them to sleep or to scare naughty children with - clean your room or the headless horseman will take you with him and use your head as his for the rest of eternity. Would definitely work on an eight-year-old. Clearly, there are no ghosts around this town and won't be either for, first of all, ghosts don't exist outside of people's minds and imagination. These are just mere stories to scare the newcomer away so that the town could keep its tight-knit family of villagers together without any interruptions - and the headless horseman, Song Mingi, never even existed outside of mere ghost stories. They probably made the whole person up as well and no one named Song Mingi has ever stepped a foot into this town. Not today and not hundreds of years ago either. 

Yes, that is exactly what it is like, he decides and takes his fur coat from the hanger near the pub's door and turns to leave the building. He is tired of all the ghost stories people throw at him as if he is some easily scared puppy. He isn't going anywhere. He bought this beautiful house a little further from everyone and he isn't going to leave anytime soon. But he sure is going to leave the company of the villagers for at least a few nights. He just can't stand them at the very moment. No amount of begging from the innkeeper could make him change his mind - he is going home and that is final. He is a newcomer, not an idiot, thank you very much. 

The freezing air outside makes his eyes water a little before they get used to it and no more tears try to escape. He can feel how the cold caresses his cheeks and nose, painting them red like the autumn apples buried underneath the snow. 

The slow dancing of snowflakes is fascinating enough for him to tune out the shouts of worry that follow him into the night as he nears the dark woods that the mythical rider is supposed to hold in its terrorizing grip.  
Although, no mystical horseman actually rides there. A few lonely flakes fall onto his lashes and melt on his skin into droplets of water.

Seonghwa doesn't bother to even think about the dark trees that loom over his head and the shadows that dance between the trunks that he can't distinguish from anything else. They barely let any light shine through their leafless branches and the bright moon that peaks out from behind the snow clouds doesn't lighten Seonghwa's road home in any way. That doesn't matter for no ghosts would want to bother him. He doesn't dance for them.

Except. There is a hot breath of air that keeps tickling his nape. At first, he brushes it off as the wind, but it doesn’t go anywhere even when he is in places that should be windless, but the first few times he tries to see if there is anyone there who followed him from the pub to scare him, he sees no one. He tries to ignore the feeling of being followed and stalked through the woods until he can't stand it anymore. He wants to just make the damn villagers come out of their hiding spots and confess their dirty plans for scaring him. A shiver runs down his back as he turns around - to come face to face with a black horse. Though, there seems to be something seriously wrong with the horse that Seonghwa can’t seem to point out.

It’s red eyes stare back at him. Wait, what? RED eyes?

The horse turns a few steps as if to go and cut off his way forward. Its head isn't hiding the rider any longer. The rider without a head. Seonghwa stares at the headless creature in front of him before reaching the conclusion that it really is impossible to hide a head somewhere underneath these clothes. The rider climbing down from the saddle is the last thing he sees before he falls onto the ground in a dead faint.


End file.
